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3232Growing success of Trojans to be observedhttps://news.lotsofways.de/en/growing-success-of-trojans-to-be-observed/
https://news.lotsofways.de/en/growing-success-of-trojans-to-be-observed/#respondMon, 17 Dec 2018 13:14:32 +0000https://news.lotsofways.de/?p=5079For some years now Trojans have been spreading fear and terror. The malicious software, with its sonorous names like WannaCry, Petya or Emotet, causes companies and authorities to riot and cause millions of dollars in damage. At the moment, another large-scale Trojan wave is causing trouble. Recently, in a hospital in the administrative district of […]

For some years now Trojans have been spreading fear and terror.

The malicious software, with its sonorous names like WannaCry, Petya or Emotet, causes companies and authorities to riot and cause millions of dollars in damage. At the moment, another large-scale Trojan wave is causing trouble. Recently, in a hospital in the administrative district of Upper Bavaria, all Windows servers and computers failed after a Trojan attack; a well-known mechanical engineer from Munich had to reduce production for weeks due to several encrypted computers, … these are only a few prominent examples of recent times. The malware: Probably an old friend – Emotet. Nevertheless it hits many companies unprepared.

For years hackers have been successful with their Trojans again and again.

In Germany alone, cybercrime causes annual damage in the double-digit billion range – and the trend is rising. But cyber attacks could have even more drastic consequences in the future. Companies only have to implement the simplest principles and finally renounce the misconception that the purchase of security software could suffice as protection. Anyone who thinks like that will be caught sooner or later,” says Schartner. From his daily work he knows: “Effective protection is only possible if a meaningful mix of prevention, detection and reaction measures is used.

Trojans spread with the simplest methods

The methods used by hackers are by no means new. All the more frightening is the fact that it hits companies unprepared again. Unintelligible. The examples show that dangers were not taken seriously or underestimated. Only in this way can it be explained that Trojans could spread and cause horrendous damage with the simplest methods and by exploiting long known security gaps and faulty system configurations.

Anything is possible. “With the right authorization and configuration concept combined with professional vulnerability management, such attacks can be avoided,” says Schartner. Because the vulnerabilities that promote propagation are often known for a long time. The problem is that serious security vulnerabilities often remain unresolved for months or months. Obviously, board members and administrators still believe that firewalls, VPN servers and antivirus software are perfectly sufficient. A fallacy. The best technical protective measures are of little use if they are interspersed with security gaps or can simply be circumvented. A single error can be enough to open the door to the spread of malware.

But current Trojans can do even more.

If they have infected a system, they have the possibility to read Outlook contacts and entire communication processes of their victims. This enables them to automatically send phishing emails with infected attachments on behalf of their victims.

]]>https://news.lotsofways.de/en/growing-success-of-trojans-to-be-observed/feed/0Cyber Risks 2019: Industry becomes more attractive as target for attackshttps://news.lotsofways.de/en/cyber-risks-2019-industry-becomes-more-attractive-as-target-for-attacks/
https://news.lotsofways.de/en/cyber-risks-2019-industry-becomes-more-attractive-as-target-for-attacks/#respondMon, 17 Dec 2018 12:52:44 +0000https://news.lotsofways.de/?p=5070The Internet of Things opens new IT security holes for cyber criminals. Tim Berghoff, security evangelist at G DATA, deals in his blog post with IT security in medium-sized businesses for the year 2019. His core statements: criminals will spy on their victims more closely. The EU GMO will be effective. Loss amounts in online […]

The Internet of Things opens new IT security holes for cyber criminals. Tim Berghoff, security evangelist at G DATA, deals in his blog post with IT security in medium-sized businesses for the year 2019. His core statements:

criminals will spy on their victims more closely.

The EU GMO will be effective.

Loss amounts in online banking will increase.

Cyber attacks on industry:

The manufacturing industry is becoming an increasingly attractive target for attacks. Anyone who wants to render a company in this sector incapable of acting quickly attacks the supply routes. If, for example, a supplier is attacked by malicious software, the company runs into delivery difficulties and may risk contractual penalties. The manipulation of production goods can also be lucrative here – in the past, for example, there have repeatedly been cases in which brand-new smartphones with malware were delivered to the end consumer.

New attacks require better technologies

Especially in the business environment there is a lot of money to be made for criminals. Therefore, more and more work is put into the development of powerful malware. The criminals also try to bypass behavior-based defense mechanisms of antivirus programs, for example by not trying to settle permanently on a system immediately after it is launched.

Criminals spy on their victims exactly

There will also continue to be a lot of movement in the area of criminal business models, especially when it comes to attacks against corporate networks, for example with Ransomware. If attackers have so far often relied on mass, class is becoming increasingly important. Although we expect the number of individual cases to fall, the amount of damage per case will increase drastically in some cases. The highest ransom demanded in 2018 was already half a million euros.

The GDPR will have an effect

Reports on actual sentences imposed on the basis of the basic data protection regulation will increase in the coming months once the first trials have been completed and the first judgments handed down. For example, a Portuguese hospital has already been fined 400,000 euros because too many employees had access to certain patient data in the case in question. The hospital in question officially has 296 doctors, but there were more than 900 user accounts with corresponding authorisations.

]]>https://news.lotsofways.de/en/cyber-risks-2019-industry-becomes-more-attractive-as-target-for-attacks/feed/0New Facebook bug allowed apps to access unpublished photoshttps://news.lotsofways.de/en/new-facebook-bug-allowed-apps-to-access-unpublished-photos/
https://news.lotsofways.de/en/new-facebook-bug-allowed-apps-to-access-unpublished-photos/#respondFri, 14 Dec 2018 19:20:17 +0000https://news.lotsofways.de/new-facebook-bug-allowed-apps-to-access-unpublished-photos/The losing streak for Facebook doesn’t stop: There was a new data leak. The Photo API error may affect people who have given third-party apps permission to access their photos. According to Facebook, the problem has been fixed. However, due to this bug, “some” third-party applications “had access to a larger number of photos than […]

The losing streak for Facebook doesn’t stop: There was a new data leak. The Photo API error may affect people who have given third-party apps permission to access their photos. According to Facebook, the problem has been fixed. However, due to this bug, “some” third-party applications “had access to a larger number of photos than usual for 12 days between September 13 and September 25, 2018.

When Facebook users give an app permission to access photos, Facebook claims that it usually only allows access to photos shared by users on its timeline. In this case, the bug may have allowed developers to access other photos:

like e.g. the stories shared on the Marketplace or Facebook

and piquantly also photos that were uploaded to Facebook but not published .

Facebook explained:

For example, if someone uploads a photo to Facebook but doesn’t finish publishing it – maybe because they lost reception or went to a meeting – we store a copy of that photo for three days so the person has it when they return to the app to complete their post.

Currently, we expect this to have affected up to 6.8 million users and up to 1,500 apps from 876 developers. The only applications affected by this bug were those that Facebook approved for access to the Photo API and authorized people to access their photos.

In mid-December, Facebook will introduce tools for app developers to determine which people using their app may be affected by this bug. Facebook will “work” with these developers to delete photos of affected users.

Affected Facebook users will be notified about a notification on Facebook. The notification will take them to a Help Center link where they can see if they have used applications affected by the bug.

Facebook encourages users to log in to any apps they have shared their Facebook photos with to see which photos they have access to.

]]>https://news.lotsofways.de/en/new-facebook-bug-allowed-apps-to-access-unpublished-photos/feed/0Why does a website redesign fail so often?https://news.lotsofways.de/en/why-does-a-website-redesign-fail-so-often/
https://news.lotsofways.de/en/why-does-a-website-redesign-fail-so-often/#respondFri, 14 Dec 2018 13:38:15 +0000https://news.lotsofways.de/?p=4907Website redesigns demand a lot from users: What was known and worked is suddenly completely different. The designers’ task is to minimize user frustrations after a relaunch. Website visitors should be motivated to use the new user interface and get to know its advantages. According to Girish Rawat, a UX researcher from San Francisco, micro […]

Website redesigns demand a lot from users: What was known and worked is suddenly completely different. The designers’ task is to minimize user frustrations after a relaunch. Website visitors should be motivated to use the new user interface and get to know its advantages.

According to Girish Rawat, a UX researcher from San Francisco, micro conversions are a help:

What is a Micro Conversion?

Micro Conversions are the actions that lead the user to the larger goal, the Macro Conversions.

Examples for microversions:

the number of users using the search feature

the number of users who update their profile pictures

the number of users confirming their phone number

The Micro Conversion is a milestone in the conversion funnel.

Girish Rawat recommends that you take a close look at them after a relaunch or redesign:

See a break-in in a particular micro-conversion metric?

Can’t users add their buddies because the new search bar is hard to find?

Was your call to register for the free trial hidden behind a new layout?

Relaunches and redesigns should be progressive and tolerable

Websites and apps that do not evolve will be overtaken by the competition. That’s why relaunches and redesigns are necessary.
Slight and progressive changes that can be easily adopted by users make a redesign bearable.

Relaunches and redesigns should not include everything that is possible – less can be more

Sometimes it may be necessary to dispense with animations, gestures or navigation structures that may look better, and instead use simpler alternatives that the user is already familiar with.

The Relaunches and Redesign Learnings:

The most effective redesigns are usually not the most beautiful.

Redesign is not a process of beautifying things.

The blind pursuit of design trends without any strategy or research to substantiate them leads to unfavorable results.

The tracking of micro conversions is a great help in assessing the quality of a relaunch or redesign.

More about the topic “websites”:

When relaunching websites, owners and web agencies pay far too little attention to the SEO friendly forwarding of incoming links. The result is that valuable incoming link power and placements in the results of search engines become invalid. […]

]]>https://news.lotsofways.de/en/why-does-a-website-redesign-fail-so-often/feed/0How to rank for head termshttps://news.lotsofways.de/en/how-to-rank-for-head-terms/
https://news.lotsofways.de/en/how-to-rank-for-head-terms/#respondFri, 14 Dec 2018 12:56:02 +0000https://news.lotsofways.de/?p=4887A head term, otherwise known as a head keyword, is a popular keyword that drives high search volume. Head terms are very competitive when it comes to ranking, and they are the opposite of long-tail keywords. What does and doesn’t rank has changed Tom Capper, an analytics specialist, gives some brilliant insights in a posting […]

A head term, otherwise known as a head keyword, is a popular keyword that drives high search volume. Head terms are very competitive when it comes to ranking, and they are the opposite of long-tail keywords.

What does and doesn’t rank has changed

Tom Capper, an analytics specialist, gives some brilliant insights in a posting on distilled.net, stating that his mental model for what does and doesn’t rank has changed. He states that links are less relevant in the top 5 positions. A mini ranking factor study he performed showed this. Tom also examined Domain Authority vs Rankings.

Search Engine Result Pages change when they become High Volume

Tom also found out that search engine result pages change when they become high volume. Seasonal keywords provide, in some ways, the control that we lack in typical ranking factor studies, because they’re keywords that become head terms for certain times of the year.

The two main takeaways are both connected to users’ behavior:

The speed with which users interacted with the SERP

The rate at which they quickly bounced back to the search results .

Classical SEO is still important,

but there are more things to consider now. More Details in Tom’s post.

]]>https://news.lotsofways.de/en/how-to-rank-for-head-terms/feed/0Dr. Carsten Ulbricht: GDPR related information about the use of messaging apps for marketing purposeshttps://news.lotsofways.de/en/dr-carsten-ulbricht-gdpr-related-information-about-the-use-of-messaging-apps-for-marketing-purposes/
https://news.lotsofways.de/en/dr-carsten-ulbricht-gdpr-related-information-about-the-use-of-messaging-apps-for-marketing-purposes/#respondWed, 05 Dec 2018 13:49:13 +0000https://news.lotsofways.de/?p=4233Lawyer and internet expert Dr. Carsten Ulbricht has some legal information about the use of messaging apps for marketing purposes, especially in the E.U. andn German market with its tight data protection rules (GDPR). In an interesting interview led by the messengerpeople team, he gives insights about data protection, customer service, and the General Data […]

Lawyer and internet expert Dr. Carsten Ulbricht has some legal information about the use of messaging apps for marketing purposes, especially in the E.U. andn German market with its tight data protection rules (GDPR). In an interesting interview led by the messengerpeople team, he gives insights about data protection, customer service, and the General Data Protection Regulation.

Dr. Carsten Ulbricht is a practicing lawyer at the firm Bartsch Rechtsanwälte in Stuttgart, Germany, and has been active in internet/social media law for years. He additionally maintains the blog rechtzweinull.de and in the past years has focused heavily on the GDPR. He has helped various companies implement the measures outlined in the GDPR, and specifically in regards to WhatsApp and data protection.

Are messaging apps like WhatsApp generally more critical than other digital channels such as social media or e-mail?

May a company communicate with my customers via WhatsApp?

Which GDPR rules are relevant for messenger communication?

What about sensitive personal data such as bank information, health information, etc.?

]]>https://news.lotsofways.de/en/dr-carsten-ulbricht-gdpr-related-information-about-the-use-of-messaging-apps-for-marketing-purposes/feed/0How to Deal with Difficult People on Software Projectshttps://news.lotsofways.de/en/how-to-deal-with-difficult-people-on-software-projects/
Mon, 03 Dec 2018 18:29:53 +0000https://people.neilon.softwareA really entertaining resource is this beauftifully designed microsite with a matrix of “difficult people on software projects” and how to deal with them. We all know these people. Meet them (virtually, of course) and get some helpful hints on how to better understand them and communicate with them. Each type of person has his […]

A really entertaining resource is this beauftifully designed microsite with a matrix of “difficult people on software projects” and how to deal with them. We all know these people. Meet them (virtually, of course) and get some helpful hints on how to better understand them and communicate with them.

Matrix: How to Deal with Difficult People on Software Projects

Each type of person has his or her small icon, represented by an animal. When you click it, you will be directed to a more detailed profile. You will learn what the problem of this person’s behavior in a project can look like and which possible solutions are available.

We think that this is not only a helpful resource when it comes to software projects. You can use this difficult people matrix in many other situations of your daily professional and personal life. In basic, it provides some helpful inspiration which enables you to see your co-workers’ behavior through different eyes. You know: It is all about empathy.

But go and take a look yourself, get to know people like:

The Dictator – A Product Manager that rejects any idea that did not come from them.

The Executive Assistant – A Product Manager who only documents what the stakeholders have asked for, but denies access to the stakeholders, such that requirements cannot be negotiated.

The Napkin Sketche – A Product Manager whose requirements are so vague that the development team must fill in the gaps, only to be told their decisions were incorrect.

The Note Taker – A Designer who is relegated to doing nothing more than documenting the ideas of others.

The Meeting Scheduler – A Project Manager who believes all project problems are caused through a lack of communication and coordination, and that copious amounts of meetings are the solution.

]]>What to Do with Your Old Blog Postshttps://news.lotsofways.de/en/what-to-do-with-your-old-blog-posts-moz/
Sun, 02 Dec 2018 12:26:51 +0000https://moz.com/blog/what-to-do-with-old-blog-postsOn many sites, the sheer number of pages are the biggest reason to consider improving or scaling back old content. From a technical perspective, depending on the scale of the old content you’re dealing with, pruning back the number of pages that you put forward can help increase your crawl efficiency. In general, there are two […]

On many sites, the sheer number of pages are the biggest reason to consider improving or scaling back old content. From a technical perspective, depending on the scale of the old content you’re dealing with, pruning back the number of pages that you put forward can help increase your crawl efficiency.

In general, there are two ways to combine several old content pieces into one:

1.) 301 redirects enable website owners to direct one of the pages to the other. This means that the second page will no longer exist.

2.) The rel=canonical tag can be used in order to point from a secondary page (which will still be existing) to the preferred one to encourage Google to list only the preferred one the pages in search results.

In an in-depth tutorial on moz.com, you can learn more about strategies for dealing with great amounts of aged content.

What to do with the old blog posts you keep

]]>An Extensive Guide To Progressive Web Applications — in Ten Minuteshttps://news.lotsofways.de/en/guide-progressive-web-applications/
Sat, 01 Dec 2018 12:41:42 +0000https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/11/guide-pwa-progressive-web-applications/Progressive Web Apps are already a native part of the web – but still, there are many website operators who have never heard of them. This should change as soon as possible. The reason: Progressive Web Apps (PWA) deliver many benefits – for website owners, but for users aswell. It’s not only about push notifications. […]

Progressive Web Apps are already a native part of the web – but still, there are many website operators who have never heard of them. This should change as soon as possible. The reason: Progressive Web Apps (PWA) deliver many benefits – for website owners, but for users aswell. It’s not only about push notifications. These benefits also include offline browsing and a native app icon on the user’s home screen – an ideal opportunity to get more returning visitors for your website.

“It happens on the web from time to time that powerful technologies come to exist without the benefit of marketing departments or slick packaging. They linger and grow at the peripheries, becoming old-hat to a tiny group while remaining nearly invisible to everyone else. Until someone names them.”

Conclusion

If you want to learn all the important basics about Progressive Web Apps within only a few minutes, a new article from Smashing Magazine is a good starting point. You will learn:

Service workers make good use of the cache to speed up the loading of assets.

Web push notifications work under the hood.

We use IndexedDB to store a massive amount of data.

Some of the optimizations for instant first load, like using HTTP2 and adding headers like Etag, last-modified and If-None-Match, prevent the downloading of valid cached assets.

]]>The User Experience of Chatbotshttps://news.lotsofways.de/en/the-user-experience-of-chatbots/
Fri, 30 Nov 2018 17:32:30 +0000https://www.nngroup.com/articles/chatbots/Far from being “intelligent”, today’s chatbots guide users through simple linear flows. Research shows that they have a hard time whenever users deviate from such flows. To understand the usability of chatbots, the researchers of Nielsen Norman Group recruited 8 US participants and asked them to perform a set of chat-related tasks. What Is the Value […]

Far from being “intelligent”, today’s chatbots guide users through simple linear flows. Research shows that they have a hard time whenever users deviate from such flows.

To understand the usability of chatbots, the researchers of Nielsen Norman Group recruited 8 US participants and asked them to perform a set of chat-related tasks.

What Is the Value Proposition for Chatbots?

With customer-service bots, the value is evident: if some of the users’ questions can be successfully addressed in an automated manner, than the business will benefit. Unfortunately, if the bot is too rudimentary, people will lose trust in the company and will feel ignored and unappreciated.

Things are less straightforward for interaction bots.

So the researches come to the question: Do chatbots have any advantages? Answer:

In their current embodiment, they just have one: less information overload. Some the users in this study were amazed that they could order pizza so easily with a chatbot. With a chatbot, there are fewer distractions and less information to attend to — as long as they stay within the chatbot’s rules, the experience will be straightforward.

Nielsen Norman Group has some UX Guidelines for Designing Chatbots:

Be upfront about using a bot and not a human.

Clearly tell people what tasks the bot can do. Make sure you don’t create false expectations.

Don’t be overly ambitious: create bots for simple tasks. Complexity is not well handled in the limited bot interface.

Tolerate typos and ambiguity.

Allow people to interact with the bot both through free-text input and selection of links.

Allow sorting and filtering to let people narrow down through results.

Save information from one task to the next.

Program some flexibility into the bot: infer context and allow people to jump forward and backward in the linear flow.

Be honest about not understanding. Offer an escape hatch in the form of a real human, a phone number, or a link to a different interaction channel.